Dr. Patricia Becher, Head of the Social Affairs Department, has been involved in the project’s development from the very beginning and has played a key role in shaping its concept. For her, “Clubs in All-Day School” is an important step toward not only implementing the legal right to all-day care from an organizational standpoint, but also designing it in a way that makes educational sense: “The legal entitlement to all-day care offers an opportunity to further develop schools in collaboration with stakeholders in the local community. Our clubs make a valuable contribution to education, physical activity, and social cohesion. That is why we are committed to strengthening these partnerships on a long-term basis.”

The legal entitlement covers care five days a week for up to eight hours a day and generally applies during school breaks as well. At Wiesbaden’s elementary schools, this is primarily implemented as part of the “Pact for All-Day School,” a partnership between schools and care providers. At the same time, the Hessian School Act, the guidelines for all-day schools in Hesse, and Wiesbaden’s “Pact for All-Day Schooling” framework explicitly call for schools to open up to the local community and collaborate with extracurricular partners.

This is where the “Clubs in the Full-Day Program” project comes in. The goal is to systematically establish and sustain long-term partnerships between schools, childcare providers, clubs, and other institutions. At the heart of the project is a coordination office that serves as a central point of contact to initiate and support these partnerships and to overcome organizational hurdles. 

“Today, all-day schooling means far more than just reliable care. Children should be able to discover their talents, be active, make music, be creative, and experience a sense of community. To ensure that such opportunities can be reliably integrated into the school day, we need good coordination, clear responsibilities, and support for these partnerships. That is exactly what the project is working on,” says project manager Miriam Lautz from the Department of Elementary School Child Care and Full-Day Programs at the Office of Social Work.

Several examples in Wiesbaden already demonstrate that partnerships between schools and clubs can work successfully. The Philipp-Reis-Schule in Dotzheim has been working successfully with TuS Dotzheim for many years and offers children regular sports activities. The Freiherr-vom-Stein School has also maintained a proven partnership with TTC Rot-Weiß Wiesbaden for years, providing students with easy access to table tennis. Another positive example is the Bierstadt Elementary School: Starting next school year, two sports clubs—the Turnverein Bierstadt and the Turn- und Sportverein Eintracht Wiesbaden—will help shape the full-day program and expand the existing offerings.

Development of the project has been underway since September 2025. The Brüder-Grimm-Schule and the Krautgartenschule were selected as pilot sites. The proximity of the two schools provided ideal conditions for initially developing and testing the project on a pilot basis. Following needs assessments at the schools and discussions with clubs, the Sports Office, and the Wiesbaden Sports Association, two challenges in particular became apparent: the shortage of qualified instructors and the funding of extracurricular programs. Various approaches were examined to address the shortage of qualified instructors. These include the option of posting job openings through the Institute of Sports Science at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz to attract students to work in the all-day program. However, one of the biggest challenges remains the funding of club activities. While schools can already draw on various funding options—such as the “Startchancen” program, socially indexed school budget allocations, or the state-funded “Schule und Verein” program—these instruments can support individual all-day programs and supplement the development of extracurricular partnerships. However, they are not sufficient for the comprehensive and sustainable expansion of partnerships within the framework of the “Clubs in All-Day Programs” project. For this reason, the state capital of Wiesbaden is relying on supplementary municipal funding. For the 2027 budget, funds were requested to compensate the coaches employed by the clubs, as well as to fund a half-time position for project coordination. The coordination office is intended to oversee the implementation of the project, serve as an interface between schools, clubs, and other stakeholders, and coordinate organizational processes. At the same time, a funding application was submitted to the federal program “Ganztag in Bildungskommunen” (All-Day Programs in Educational Municipalities). The program is intended to provide proportional funding for the personnel costs of the coordination office. 

“The legal right to all-day care offers a great opportunity to rethink school. With ‘Clubs in All-Day Care,’ we are combining education, volunteer work, and social participation. Even with relatively modest financial resources, we can create significant added value. That is why we are committed to securing the necessary financial and personnel conditions for the project’s long-term implementation,” emphasizes Oliver Klump, head of the Department of Elementary School Child Care and Full-Day Programs. 

For the project’s further development, both funding for the activity leaders and reliable coordination among the participating stakeholders are of central importance. The goal is to gradually expand cooperation between schools and clubs throughout the entire city. The experiences gained from the pilot sites will be used to further develop the programs in line with needs. In the future, “Clubs in All-Day Programs” is also set to be expanded beyond sports. In the future, cultural, music, and traditional clubs, volunteer fire departments, and other volunteer organizations will also be involved. 

“Wiesbaden has a diverse landscape of clubs—ranging from sports to culture, music, and traditional customs, all the way to volunteer fire departments. When children are exposed to this diversity during the full-day program, they learn early on how community engagement works in their city. This can be a win-win for both schools and clubs: Schools gain additional, reliable programs, while clubs can inspire young people to get involved in their work at an early age, thereby also addressing the challenge of recruiting new members for club activities and volunteer work,” says Mayor Gert-Uwe Mende.

In this way, the project strengthens civic engagement in Wiesbaden and provides children with a diverse range of educational and recreational opportunities.